Congratulations, you found the secret message.

By BRODIE H. BROCKIE

BEYOND THE SEA


Go-go dancing scuba girls on the blue carpet.
I only had about an hour to rest and change again, though, before heading out to what we anticipated would be the second most exciting portion of the trip: the exclusive invite-only sneak-preview party for the new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. The next day, the ride would open to the public, but that night 1,000 people (including all the Dream Job winners and our guests) would be invited to ride the ride and enjoy a big party that took up about half of the Tomorrowland section of the park.

We had been told the party would be full of celebrities - both stars of TV, music, and movies, but also Disney behind-the-scenes celebrities (directors, executives, imagineers). We didn't know who exactly would be there, but one pretty safe bet seemed to be John Lasseter, Pixar's head creative man, the director of the Toy Story movies, plus A Bug¹s Life, and Cars, and who had last year also been promoted to overseeing both Disney Feature Animation and Disney Imagineering (the geniuses who create the park attractions). He's kind of a hero of mine.


Dude.
We all dressed up a little for this. Dad and I both went with the night's nautical theme by wearing captain's hats and ascots. I'd also found some Finding Nemo fabric and had mom make a Hawaiian shirt out of it for me. After all, Lasseter is known for always wearing Hawaiian shirts, so maybe this way he might see me even if I didn't see him.

The party was incredible. Like everything we had seen done for the contest winners, Disney was going all out with this party. We entered along a long blue carpet. Go-go dancing scuba girls wiggled to the music on either side. A huge puppet of Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo, swam in the air above us. We were handed light-up Mickey ears and were greeted at the end of the carpet by Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald, all dressed in nautical outfits.


Captain Dale, Captain Mickey, and Captain Brodie.

Inside, enormous jellyfish balloons hung above us and bubbles filled the air. Waiters worked the crowd with hors d¹ourves or bright orange or blue drinks on trays (normally, there is no alcohol served in Disneyland, but this being a private party, that rule was not in effect). Buffet tables of food and dessert were set up, and you could enjoy the many dishes at one of the many clear plastic tables filled with water and real, live fish. Even the bar was on top of a big aquarium.


Christa, me, and mom with the submarine/bus.
A bus that had been redesigned to look like a submarine was on hand. The bus had been touring the west coast to promote the new attraction. A panel on the bus opened up to reveal Crush, now in animated form, who interacted with the audience. Mom asked him what the secret was to his long life (answer: "family"), and since he called everyone "dude" what he would call a female dude (his answer: "dudettes").

I bumped into Ricky Brigante, a Dream Job winner for the Haunted Mansion position and the host of the popular Inside the Magic Podcast. Ricky told me he had just run into John Lasseter a few minutes ago. I looked where he had been, but no luck.


Chocolate Nemo.
We got to ride the updated Submarine Voyage at our leisure. We only waited around ten minutes. The following day, we would hear of guests waiting for over four hours. The new voyage includes the amazing effect of seeing fully animated characters from Finding Nemo right there in the water outside of your sub. I still miss the decommissioned 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction at Disney World, but it was nice being back in a Disney sub at all.

The one thing the party didn't have were the celebrities we'd heard about. Once home, I would learn that lots of them had been there - Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Courtney Cox, Geena Davis, Mariska Hargitay, and lots more. Apparently they had all been there earlier in the day, before the party was opened up to the non-celebrity invited guests. We had been out-elited!

I didn't really mind missing those celebs too much, but I would've liked to have met Disney Legends Tony Baxter and Marty Sklaror Finding Nemo. Most of all, I would've liked to have met John Lasseter. Dad and I did get our picture taken with former Disney executive Ron Dominguez (in the 1950s, his family had sold his childhood home to Walt Disney who turned the land into part of Disneyland). I combed the area one last time before giving up.


Christa being adorable on the teacups.
We left the party to ride a few more attractions that night. We took our first ride up and down the Matterhorn. Even coaster-phobic mom got on and enjoyed it! I asked her what she thought of the animatronic yeti inside. "There was a yeti?" she asked? Mom had kept her eyes tight shut. After that, we hit the teacups and Peter Pan's Flight before calling it a night.

On the way back to the hotel, I spotted a woman walking ahead of us wearing the distinctive red plaid vest and bright blue skirt of a Disneyland tour guide. Earlier that same day, my fellow honorary skipper William Betts had mentioned he was impressed that we were given one of these guides since they're normally reserved only for V.I.P.s and celebrities.

Which raised the question: who was this tour guide with?

I hurried forward a little and then matched pace with the tour guide and the man and young boy she was with. I looked over and immediately recognized the man. I turned back to my family to mouth the name of who I had found: "JOHN LASSETER!"

Lasseter was in the middle of telling his guide a story, so I waited until he was eventually done to interrupt. I asked him if I could introduce myself. He seemed genuinely glad to meet us and interested in who we were. I told him about the Dream Job competition and he said that Disneyland Resort President Ed Grier had just told him about that earlier in the day. He congratulated me. We chatted for several minutes about all kinds of things - the Jungle Cruise, the weather, Pixar's upcoming movie Ratatouille. He clearly had listened when I introduced Christa as my fiancé, since, as he said goodbye to us, he told her how much he enjoyed being married . It's a great feeling to meet someone whose work you admire and find out they are genuinely nice too.


Brodie and John Lasseter.

Oh, and one other fun fact about John Lasseter: his first job ever at Disney was being a skipper on The Jungle Cruise. Now he's one of Hollywood's power elite, but once he was Skipper John, one of the probably thousands of skippers who had shot blanks at hippos and entertained guests with corny jokes and puns. He still had fond memories of that job and was proud of having been a skipper.

The next day, I would be one of them too.

PART SEVEN: SUBMARINE SEND-OFF

INVISO TEXT.


worldfamousjunglecruise.com ©2007 Skipper Brodie. The Jungle Cruise, Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo DIsneyland, and all Jungle Cruise photographs, characters, multimedia and artwork are copyrighted by and/or are trademarks of the Walt Disney Company / Disney Enterprises. This website is not affiliated in any way with any Disney company. Wow, did you just read all this legalese? What's next on your reading list? phonebook maybe? Some instruction manuals?